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20 comedy castaways

The best of Desert Island Discs

As Desert Island Discs celebrates its 75th birthday on Radio 4 today, here are 20 comedy figures who have appeared on the show, including the luxury item and book they wood take, and the favourite of all the tracks they chose.

Victoria Wood

Year: 2007Interviewer: Kirsty Young Favourite track: What a Fool Believes by The Doobie BrothersBook: A big book by Charles DickensLuxury: A bumper book of Sudoku with blank pages & pens
In this frank interview, Wood described how, as a teenager, she felt she was a misfit - she had few friends, she struggled with her weight and at school she used to steal other people's homework - yet found herself when she joined a youth theatre.
Listen here.

Les Dawson

Year: 1978Interviewer: Roy PlomleyFavourite track: Pavane Pour Une Infante Defunte by Maurice RavelBook: Trustee From The Toolroom by Nevil Shute Luxury: Piece of Georgian furniture
Dawson can't help himself cracking jokes – saying that when he learnt piano 'My father used to help me keep time by banging the lid up and down on my fingers' – but also reveals some of the stories of his life.
Listen here.

Michael McIntyre

McIntyre spoke of how he ran up debts of more than £30,000 before making it as a stand-up, and how he was stung by criticism, especially from other comedians, at the British Comedy Awards. 'Quite a few people were making jokes at my expense,' he said. 'It just made me feel awful, because I am there with my wife and she has gone out and bought a dress. And it is my big night and I won, and yet the overriding experience was that of nastiness. For what reason, I don't know. I don't know what I was doing – just making people laugh.'
Listen here.

Bob Monkhouse

Year: 1999Interviewer: Sue LawleyFavourite track: Adagio for Strings, Opus 11 by Samuel Barber Book: The Adventures of Alice by Lewis CarrollLuxury: Clarinet
The slick comedian let through a glimpse of his real life behind the smarm in this interview, not least in a touching discussion of his son Gary, who was born with severe cerebral palsy – and how he used comedy to cope with tragedies in his life.
Listen here.

Ricky Gervais

Year: 2007Interviewer: Kirsty YoungFavourite track: Lilywhite by Cat StevensBook: A coffee table book of art Luxury: Vat of novocaine
Gervais explained he won't have children because 'babies are scroungers', and saud: 'We are worried about being pretentious, but there is nothing wrong about putting art into comedy'
Listen here.

Dave Allen

Year: 1975Interviewer: Roy PlomleyFavourite track: Canon In D by Johann PachelbelBook: Ballard of Reading Gaol by Oscar WildeLuxury: Painting by Van Hook
Only ten minutes remain of this episode, but they are available on iPlayer. He tells of how he records 250 sketches for a six-episode series, and cuts away the ones that didn't get a laugh, and how priests and nuns enjoy his comedy - but laypeople get upset on their behalf
Listen here.

Russell Brand

Year: 2013Interviewer: Kirsty Young Favourite track: Triple Manta byNirinjan Kaur Book: Bhagavad Gita Luxury: A stuffed Noel Gallagher
Brand said that despite his wild past 'in the end I'd just like to sit down and watch telly with someone and hold hands', and that he thought the Sachsgate scandal had blown up because of an 'anti-BBC agenda'.
Listen here.

Vic Reeves

Year: 2003Interviewer: Sue LawleyFavourite track: Lark Ascending by Vaughan WilliamsBook: Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K JeromeLuxury: Potato seeds
When offered the Bible he said he wouldn't want it – and would use it for firewood, and his song choices included a track by Marxist avant-rock group Henry Cow
Listen here.

Billy Connolly

Year: 2002Interviewer: Sue LawleyFavourite track: Long Gone Lonesome Blues by Hank WilliamsBook: Oxford English DictionaryLuxury: Banjo
Since recording this show, Connolly developed Parkinson's disease which makes it impossible for him to play his beloved banjo.
Listen here.

Johnny Vegas

Year: 2010Interviewer: Kirsty YoungFavourite track: Hurt by- Johnny Cash Book: The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert TressellLuxury: A kiln
'I found popularity through self-destruction,' Vegas admitted to Young, 'And that can be quite addictive'. But this interview came as he started to clean up his life and cut back on the drinking. 'Life's actually turned around and been very good to me,' he said.
Listen here.

Kenny Everett

Year: 1994Interviewer: Sue LawleyFavourite track: Symphonic Prelude by Giacomo Puccini Book: Eagle annualLuxury: Bathroom suite
'I'd like to die serene,' Ev said. 'I haven't been very serene in this life; it's been a turmoilish sort of life… I think I'd like to try a bit of serenity.'
Listen here.

Paul Merton

Year: 1993Interviewer: Sue LawleyFavourite track: Spreading by Kronos QuartetBook: Buster Keaton Biography by Rudi BleshLuxury: Bed
An early appearance for a young Merton, describing his 'painful beginnings at London's Comedy Store, and his graduation from there to radio and television'.
Listen here.

Ernie Wise

Year: 1990 Interviewer: Sue LawleyFavourite track: Bring Me Sunshine by Morecambe And WiseBook: Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens Luxury: Yellow Rolls Royce
Six years after Eric Morecambe's death, Little Ern talks about how he had to carve out a showbusiness career on his own, as well as looking back on partnership of nearly 50 years. 'I do dream about him,' he confessed. 'We're always doing the double act.'
Listen here.

Juen Whitfield

Year: 1990Interviewer: Sue LawleyFavourite track: The Trolley Song by Judy GarlandBook: A do-it-yourself manualLuxury: Supply of cocoa butter and hat
Ever-modest Whitfield describes herself as 'an actress with a vague understanding of comedy'. Quite the understatement for a stalwart of the genre from The Glums in the 1950s to Absolutely Fabulous.
Listen here.

Kenneth Williams

Year: 1987Interviewer: Michael ParkinsonFavourite track: 1st Movement from Spring Sonata by Ludwig van BeethovenBook: The Golden Treasury by Francis PalgraveLuxury: Crate of cologne
Amid his usual anecdotes, the Carry On and Hancock's Half Hour star admits that when he looks back at his diaries he thinks of himself: 'What an arrogant little nasty person' and regrets his compulsion to 'show off at someone else's expense.'
Listen here.

Steve Coogan

Year: 2009Interviewer: Kirsty Young Favourite track: We Have All the Time in the World by Louis ArmstrongBook:The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne Luxury: Fully-restored Morris Minor Traveller with wooden detail.
Coogan told Young that he didn't deal with his early fame very well, and that lurid accounts of his personal life being splashed across the tabloiad made him 'hysterical'. He said: 'I was staggered that anyone would be remotely interested in my personal life. I didn't really understand that I was famous and so it was a shock to me.'
Listen here.

Spike Milligan

Year: 1978Interviewer: Favourite track: Yesterday by The BeatlesBook: Future Shock by Alvin TofflerLuxury: Barclaycard
Milligan thinks 'eventually you'd get haunted by being on your own' when stuck on the island and shares his thoughts about overpopulation and vegetarianism.
Listen here.

Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran

Year: 2015Interviewer: Kirsty YoungFavourite track: Gran chose You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman by Aretha Franklin; Marks chose St Matthew's Passion Book: Gran declined the Bible, which all castaways are offered, and took the Koran (in case he was rescued by Somalian pirates he'd have something to talk about) ) the Collected Works of Evelyn Waugh; and Marks took his own diaries, which he'd never read.Luxury: Gran chose a noisy drum kit and Marks chose a selection of wines, and a refrigerator
Writers for Frankie Howerd and creators of Alan B'Stard, and Birds of a Feather, Marks and Gran told of how first met as ten year olds at a youth club, growing up to have 'real jobs' in the civil service and journalism, before embarking on their comedy writing career.
Listen here.

Marty Feldman

Year: 1968Interviewer: Roy PlomleyFavourite track: Concerto in D Minor for Oboe, Strings and Continuo (Opus 9 No 2) by Tomaso Giovanni AlbinoniBook: The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery Luxury: Piano (as he wasn't allowed his wife)
In this rather poor-quality recording, Feldman said he would enjoy the solitude on the island. Among his choices were Will Hay's theme tune Oh Mr Porter, as played on the mighty fairground organ built for the Blackpool Tower Ballroom. 'It's awful,' he admits. 'But it's lovely in it's awful way'.
Listen here.

Benny Hill

Year: 1959Interviewer: Roy PlomleyFavourite track: Le Gamin de Paris by Yves MontandBook: Collection of language coursesLuxury: : Film camera
Another episode for which only a few minutes exist, but it's still of historic interest as Hill explains how he started in the business. In 2006, Hill would make another appearance on the programme – when David Cameron chose his comedy song Ernie as one of his selection.
Listen here.

• Click here for all the comedy figures who have appeared on the show. The 75th anniversary edition of Desert Island Discs, featuring David Beckham, is on Radio 4 at 11.15am today.

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